Flightless
by cows4ever
Summary: Max's Flock has met a new group of mutants just like them, who calls themselves The Herd. After some of the members of The Herd help the Flock out of a tight situation, they have to stay with them to pay a few debts in return. IggyXOC OCXOC
1. Chapter 1

I do not own Maximum Ride. I only own the OC's that do not appear in the anime or manga. Enjoy~!

Also, when this story happens, Nevermore never happened nor existed (I'm really procrastinating on reading that book for some reason)

Chapter One

It was a normal day for the Flock. They went outside for once, decided they could shop at the nearest mall they could find from their latest hideout and then something happened to get them into the back of a cop car. And none of them knew how that happened in the first place.

Maybe it was when they somehow casted nets over each person before they could take off into the sky. Max somehow suspected that these so-called "cops" were really working for the School, which was slowly, very slowly, starting to get destroyed.

"Whose fault was this again?" Nudge asked, slouching in her seat. She was stuck in one of the two police cars with Max and the Gasman, AKA Gazzy. Sighing, she blew the some of her blonde highlights out of her face.

"I don't know anymore. I've gone through the scenario over and over and they all come out with the some of the same outcomes; we either have a spy in the group (at this she muttered Dylan's name under her breath), we seem to be getting weaker, or they're apart of the School. Either way, it won't look good for us," Max sighed. She really wanted to run her hands through her blonde hair, but they were cuffed behind her.

"I'm hungry…" the boy between them muttered, his stomach growling. Not only did they get arrested for some reason, but they didn't even get to eat before doing so. Now Gazzy was starving and thought he was never going to get a meal ever again.

"I know, Gazzy…" Max sighed once more. She was beginning to get a headache.

"Hey, what's happening up there?" Nudge asked, nudging her head towards the front, where the first cop car was slowing to a stop and they soon followed. They were nowhere near a stop sign or even a traffic light. They were in the middle of a desert highway somewhere near Arizona or Montana. There were mountains and sand and canyons all over the place and the only signs were speed limit signs and the occasional commercial billboard.

For a few minutes, all seemed calm, until a body flew into the air and landed on the hood of Car #2, making the glass crack and some of the metal crumple with the forced weight. Nudge squeaked and sat up straight, head leant back as she flinched. Gazzy had jumped and almost sat completely on the surprised Max beside him, who only gasped at this situation.

The cop in front of them had jumped as well, yelling out a curse which Max knew for sure that Gazzy would either repeat or ask about to Iggy once they got out of the sticky situation.

The policeman shoved his stick shift back to the big letter 'R' and stepped on the gas, making the vehicle move backwards at an alarming speed. Nudge squeaked once more as the car tilted forward, making the three in the back land hard on the fence that separated cop from criminal, Max then Gazzy then Nudge.

"When'd you get so fat, Nudge?" Gazzy wheezed, trying to breathe with his lungs being squished.

"Shut up!"

"_Shut up!_" Gazzy mocked, his voice sounding more like Nudge's then his own.

"Both of you stop it!" the cop and Max yelled.

The police man was still stepping on the gas, trying to move forward but still forgetting that it's the back wheels that made the car move.

_Idiot_, Max thought. She may have been the worst driver to ever be born with wings, but she still knew more about cars then this officer did.

In a split second, the door to the driver's seat was torn open and the cop was pulled out. He struggled but whoever was on the other side was far stronger than this officer.

The sound of fist hitting skin was heard for the next few minutes before a thud sounded, meaning whoever lost had hit the ground, most likely without many unmarked skin.

Slowly, the back of the car was set down and four figures could be seen on the other side, one holding a set of keys that would surely set the Flock free from the handcuffs.

As the door opened and they were freed, Max had the time to study their 'saviours'.

She studied the one with the keys, since she was the closest. She had skin as dark as Nudge's, eyes that seemed more golden then hazel that were blocked by a pair of cracked glasses, and black hair, neatly braided as to avoid tangles in the extremely curly hair. The odd thing about her was the tabby like cat ears that protruded from the sides of her head, twitching as they caught sounds around her. Occasionally, a orange tail could have been seen swishing nervously at the corner of Max's eyes, but as soon as she looked the tail was gone from her sight.

Another girl was standing behind her, having similar calico cat like ears that came from the sides of her head, parting her reddish-brown hair into slight waves. She seemed to have a bored glint in her green eyes but her stance showed that she was extremely guarded about her surroundings, her pale arms crossed tightly in front of her chest. A slightly bushy tail was stiffly moving behind her as she glanced around them and even at the three that stood in front of her.

The third person was shorter than the rest of the four, reaching to about the lower shoulders of the tallest one, which seemed to be 5'9". She was also one of the strangest Max had ever seen. Her skin was almost a light gray colour and her hands were covered with some form of slime, and each time she anxiously flexed her fingers, it showed a web like feature that Max would normally find in frogs. Her grey eyes were large and wide, almost fish like, and her long dark brown hair seemed to have an ocean like feel, almost like it was floating on it's own.

The fourth, and last as it seemed, was as odd as the third girl. With skin almost completely white and random black spots covering her body (two were very distracting – one surrounding her left eye and the other covering part of her lower right cheek), she stood behind the rest of her group, watching over the rest of the Flock that must have been freed before they would. She had shoulder length, chocolate brown hair, the tips seeming to fade into other colours every few seconds. She had looked back and Max caught the hint of brown, almost black, eyes with curiously long eyelashes. Two horns stuck out of her head, slightly curved, and below, twin cow like ears did as well, a jagged hole in the one on the right. A white tail with black hair was swishing wildly, sometimes almost seeming like it was swatting at an invisible fly.

"Who are you?" Max asked, glaring at the four strangers. The tabby girl had shrunk slightly back, away from the Flock and almost behind the damaged car, ears flattened fretfully.

"We're your saviours," the fish-like one stated, glaring right back into Max's brown eyes. Lightening almost seemed to shoot between them, but the cow like one stepped in before that happened.

"I know this may seem a bit odd to you, but we're actually here to help you. We have someone you've been looking for, and I'm sure you'd be glad to see him, as he would you (no matter how tsundere he is)," she said, raising her hands in defense.

"But to have him, we'll also like something from you as well," the calico one said, straightening her back.

"We won't tell you what until we get back to the base that's only a few caves away. And we promise not to jump you. Why would we go through all that trouble on saving you only to capture you again?" the cow one said again.

Max thought for a while, looking at the rest of her flock. Nudge, Gazzy, Angel, Iggy, and even Dylan, were probably exhausted and hungry and they were who knows how far from the nearest town that hadn't seen the fiasco that happened only a few hours ago was!

Sighing, Max said the word that seemed extremely hard to force out.

"Fine."

_cows4ever: Konbonwa Minna-san~! So this is my first MR story and I soon hope to update the others that I know are still up and running. And like I said, this story is before Nevermore but after Angel and Nevermore doesn't exist. But Dylan does because he's been there since Fang. If I mess up on anything that seems important that's been in the series, please do not be afraid to correct me and I'll try to fix it as much as I can~! Hope you enjoyed~!_


	2. Chapter 2

I do not own any actual characters in Maximum Ride. Anyone who isn't already in the books is mine. Enjoy~!

Chapter 2

The walk to the base seemed long and hot, but that was only because of Gazzy and Nudge, who were complaining about the heat the entire way. A few times Max or one of the newer girls would tell them to shut up and then they'd be quiet once again.

Once they reached a small cave opening, which seemed smaller, or at least more closed off, then the other holes in the canyons around them.

They had ushered the six inside, the one with horns looking behind them as the others went inside, and she later joined them after making sure no eyes were watching. It was a silly superstition, but she had felt safer doing so. Along with many other, OCD like things.

Again, they walked some ways into the cavern, but soon reached a large room, a hole in the ceiling allowing rays of light to enter the room. A few, unlit torches lined the walls wherever the shadows still touched, waiting to be lit once again later that night. A few chairs were against the wall and about three other hallways were carved on the other side. Max could see some small words labeled on the side, but she was still too far away from it to read properly.

"This shall be your other home for as long as you like. Only if you don't tell any of our enemies where we live," the webbed girl said, turning to face the other six. She gave a large smile at them, and silently squealed at the adorable little blonde girl with the biggest blue eyes she's ever seen.

"We can't stay here! We have our own home to go to," Max said, glaring slightly at the girls.

"You have to. For our deal to work," the horned one sighed. She whispered something to the one with tabby ears, who shyly nodded and walked down the path on the left, her slim tail waving behind her nervously.

"While we wait for our friend to bring our guest, why don't we introduce ourselves," the colournette said. "My name's Iskra. I would hope to have met on different terms. Maybe over a nice dinner?" Iskra laughed a little before introducing her companions.

"Lily's the one that looks like a giant frog," at this the dark brunette called out a 'hey' and gave her an insulted look.

"The one who left is Jordan. She's a little shy so don't be mad if she doesn't talk to you right away. And this is Rose," she pulled onto the arm of the calico girl, who patted her head in response and gave a quick smile to the others.

"And we know who you are. Not to sound too stalker-ish, but we've been following you for a few weeks, tracking your actions," Iskra stated. "Max, we've noticed that you're the leader of this group but anyone can see that when you're so overprotective of your flock. But since you're the leader, we need to tell you something important, which involves your flock."

Max rose an eyebrow, clearly not convince that whatever these girls had was so important to her Flock. _But they did save our butt before we could save ours ourselves, _she thought. _I'll see what they have to offer, before making anything happen._

In the cave that Jordan went down, mixed shuffling could be heard. One seemed like they were struggling, growling out insults to the slightly calm ones that followed.

It took a few minutes before the owners were shown in the large circle of sunshine in the middle, and the entire flock gasped in shock at what they saw. A dark haired boy with equally dark eyes was glaring at the nervous girl that held his tied hands. His black hair had grown longer since the last they had met him, but he was still recognizable.

"As you can see, we found one of your ex-Flock members, Fang. It's been a few months since you've last seen him, yes?" Iskra said. She took the taller boy out of Jordan's hands, who quietly thanked her and moved to hide slightly behind Lily to watch what he friend was planning on doing. "We thought, if we returned him to you, you could stay here long enough to get to know my family."

Those words snapped everyone's emotions into one: confusion. The word 'family' the most, since family was one that wasn't passed around too lightly around the Flock. Many have been called family and were hurt by said family, like Fang did to them. And many weren't considered family until the end, like Max's late half-brother, Ari.

"What do you mean?" Nudge asked.

"I'll take over from here," Lily said. She stepped forwards, giving Jordan to Rose as she did.

"About eight years before your youngest boy The Gasman, or Gazzy as some of you prefer, was born, Iskra was born from the same mother that bore him and his little sister Angel. And, like both children, she was given off to the School to be experimented on for the better of the human race. Once there, she was given the appearance of a bovine and was tested on until she was ten years old," Lily said. During the entire speech, she had her back turned from the Flock, in an almost dramatic manner. So she turned towards them, a smirk on her face as she said the words that would seem to change the Flock's lives forever.

"In short, Iskra is Angel's and Gazzy's older sister. And in exchange for Fang to obediently return to your family, she would like to spend some time with hers."

_cows4ever: I hope you enjoyed this chapter~! It may not be very exciting but just wait and it could be once I get into the flow of this fanfic~! _


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